With the spread of cellphones with camera, cheap digital cameras and memory cards, those that want pictures and footage can have them. This is not 1982 and Assad Jr. tries to do a Hama Part II there will be footage of it and it will be disseminated by Al-Jazeera and YouTube and eventually to the MSM.

Too bad we aren't likely to get as good a MSM and video coverage of this as Libya or Egypt.

Its still much harder. Syria has a much more effective and ruthless secret police. Internet links and cell service is more restricted. The MSM are being controlled better. The country is further away from Europe and open borders. etc...

Syrian news/video "leakage" is probably going to be as corralled as "well" as in Iran. Unless the protests gather momentum and the apparatus starts to come apart.

But they are close to Lebanon and Jordan. CDs and Memory Cards can easily be sent across border. If you are close enough you could use either countries cell system. No wonder they have recently closed the border with Jordan which Daara, a center point for the protests, is very close to.

Its still much harder. Syria has a much more effective and ruthless secret police. Internet links and cell service is more restricted. The MSM are being controlled better. The country is further away from Europe and open borders. etc...

Syrian news/video "leakage" is probably going to be as corralled as "well" as in Iran. Unless the protests gather momentum and the apparatus starts to come apart.

Then they are doomed! Its a proven fact that only M-60s can resist pro-democracy protests!

But they are close to Lebanon and Jordan. CDs and Memory Cards can easily be sent across border. If you are close enough you could use either countries cell system. No wonder they have recently closed the border with Jordan which Daara, a center point for the protests, is very close to.

Its still a choke point to damp down the spread of information both internally and externally. Even if it gets on tape, without CNN et al. cameras there beaming live video of atrocities in progress, don't expect any stirrings in the UN.

The UN didn't do shit for Tunisia or Egypt. The situation snowballed beyond the expectations of most people, pundits, the regime and even the protesters themselves. Did anyone thing that a fruit-seller immolating himself in some small city in Tunisia would lead to the collapse of Egypt's President with a security apparatus of 500,000 and the backing of both West, Russia and China?

Syria has all the right ingredients (Alawite--heretic for Sunnis- minority who control a majority Sunni nation, youth unemployment, corruption, lack of freedom, no elections and repression of opinions), is not in the "Friends" list for the U.S., Europe and recently has pissed-off Saudi Arabia with their constant assistance in repressing the Sunnis in Lebanon and allowing Iran to extend its reach in Lebanon to the detriment of Sunnis. (besides assisting in assassinating Rafik Harari who was a big ally of the Saudis and a fellow Sunni).

The Wahabists in Saudi Arabia are salivating the strategic opportunity of a)removing a "heretic" Alawite control from a major Sunni Arab country, b)get a new Syria off Iran's orbit, which will lead to c)reduction in military assistance to reach Hezbollah in Lebanon who are an impeding the Sunnis there and d)get back in Iran for formeting Shiite rebellions in Yemen (and attacked Saudi forces), Bahrain and Saudi Arabia's Eastern provinces.

Its still a choke point to damp down the spread of information both internally and externally. Even if it gets on tape, without CNN et al. cameras there beaming live video of atrocities in progress, don't expect any stirrings in the UN.

Its still much harder. Syria has a much more effective and ruthless secret police. Internet links and cell service is more restricted. The MSM are being controlled better. The country is further away from Europe and open borders. etc...

Syrian news/video "leakage" is probably going to be as corralled as "well" as in Iran. Unless the protests gather momentum and the apparatus starts to come apart.

Oh for fucks sake, stick to what you know.Syria is awash with digital cameras, memory cards, video cameras and mobile phones just as much as Egypt was/is.

Just because you've got your 'OMG scary Middle East dictatorship' goggles on doesn't mean the place isn't awash with vast hoards of western tourists, in fact the tourists are almost as bad as in Egypt there.

Jordanians in Ramtha, the other side of the border have been demonstrating in support of their neighbours. They have also been infiltrating the now closed border to bring in supplies and bring out info. The Syrian government is unable to shut down Daraa electronically due to the prevalence of Jordanian phones and SIMs in Daraa.

The classic 'my friends enemy is my friend' and other calculations no longer hold much water. Israel is unwilling and at this time unable to adapt to the evolving situation.It is paralyzed by fear of the unknown. Worse, they are petrified that they may have to engage their feloow Semites as people and not as monsters. Syria IS a popular revolution, not led be AQ, Salafists or Mossad agents but by ordinary people who have lost their fear. I believe Bashar is unable to accept anything other than despotism and his ham fisted and contary attempts at reconciliation will eventually lead to another Hama. Whether Douma, Daraa, Latakia etc. are all going to be cowed reamins to be seen.

It is indeed a watershed moment in the Arab world, more so than the pan Arab movement led by Nasser, which was very much a small coterie of revolutionaries. How the US and Israel respond to these developments will be of great significance.